Chabad Lubavitch of Lithuania
Chabad-Lubavitch in Lithuania: the Vilnius mission led since 1994 by Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, centres in Kaunas and Klaipėda, and a long dispute with the Lithuanian and Vilnius Jewish communities over the Choral Synagogue and restitution funds
| Chabad Lubavitch of Lithuania
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| Type | Jewish religious organisation (Chabad-Lubavitch) |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Vilnius (01126) |
| Location | Vilnius; Kaunas; Klaipėda |
| Area served | Lithuania |
| Key people | Sholom Ber Krinsky (head emissary); Aharon Shlomo Ofen; Mendel Krinsky (Kaunas); Yosef Yitzchak Shlomo Pevzner (Klaipėda) |
| Website | https://www.chabadlithuania.com |
Chabad Lubavitch of Lithuania is the Chabad-Lubavitch mission in Lithuania, based in Vilnius and led by Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, who settled in the city in 1994.[1][2] JTA reported in 2004 that Krinsky, a nephew of the senior Chabad official Yehuda Krinsky, had until then been the only resident rabbi in Vilnius and responsible for most Jewish religious activity in Lithuania.[3] Chabad also has centres in Kaunas and Klaipėda.[4]
Krinsky's relations with the country's organised Jewish community, the Jewish Community of Lithuania, and with the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community, which owns the city's Choral Synagogue, have been in dispute on and off since 2004.[3][2][5]
Centres
Chabad headquarters lists three centres in Lithuania:[4]
- Chabad Lubavitch of Lithuania, Vilnius, postcode district 01126 (Sholom Ber Krinsky and Aharon Shlomo Ofen).[1]
- Chabad of Kaunas (Kovno), Kaunas (Mendel and Mushkie Krinsky).[6]
- Chabad KSD, Klaipėda (Yosef Yitzchak Shlomo and Shifra Pevzner).[7]
Disputes with the Jewish community
2004: the chief rabbi dispute
In 2004 the leaders of the Jewish Community of Lithuania chose a non-Hasidic Orthodox rabbi, Chaim Burshtein, as chief rabbi; Krinsky's opponents said his own wish to become chief rabbi had led to that choice.[3][8] Its president, Simonas Alperavičius, closed the Vilnius synagogue in May 2004, saying the step was meant to stop Krinsky's supporters taking control of it. Krinsky's supporters held a vigil in the synagogue yard, and Alperavičius said he would sue to have them removed. Each side accused the other of violence: Krinsky's side said community security guards had used "unprovoked brutal physical force" against him and his family, and Alperavičius called the incident a "provocation".[3] JTA later described a fistfight in the synagogue that year between supporters of Krinsky and of Burshtein.[2]
2007: debts and eviction
JTA reported in 2007 that Krinsky had lost control of the synagogue and faced eviction from his Chabad house for non-payment of rent, having earlier sold the property to pay his debts. Krinsky acknowledged he had "made mistakes", but said his troubles began when restitution of Jewish communal property came into view and asked for "fair representation in the restitution equation".[8]
2016–2017: exclusion from communal premises
On 28 October 2016 guards hired by the community kept Krinsky out of a Jewish community centre being used for prayer while the main synagogue was renovated, and police removed several of his supporters. The then chief rabbi, Kalev Krelin, said Krinsky "was brutally trying to force the synagogue to follow Chabad customs"; a supporter of Krinsky disputed that he had misbehaved.[2] In February 2017 the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community, Shmuel Levin, barred Krinsky from the Choral Synagogue until he committed in writing to follow its "rules and order", accusing him of disrespect to the synagogue's rabbi.[9]
Restitution funds
The Forward reported in 2017 that Krinsky was seeking a share of the roughly $40 million in restitution that Lithuania was paying for Jewish communal property, through the Good Will Foundation, and accused the community's chair, Faina Kukliansky, of shutting him out and misspending the money; Kukliansky said the community's finances were transparent. The foundation's co-chair, Andrew Baker, told the paper that a grant had fallen through because Krinsky would not provide documentation, and that a government bailiff had told the foundation that money granted to Krinsky's operations would be garnished to repay $108,000 in tax and social security debts.[10]
2023–2025: closure of the Choral Synagogue
In December 2023 the website Defending History published a circular from Krinsky objecting to the months-long closure of the Choral Synagogue.[11] In April 2025 the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community closed the synagogue temporarily over Passover after Krinsky refused to sign a liability agreement for an event he planned. The community said that some guests at a celebration Krinsky held in the synagogue in February 2025 had been hospitalised with salmonella and that he had not reported it as required; it also called his claims that he was refused funding "misinformation", saying the Good Will Foundation could not fund an organisation that did not apply and report.[5]
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch movement
- Chabad Lubavitch of Latvia
- Chabad Lubavitch of Belarus
- Chabad Lubavitch of Poland
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Chabad Lubavitch of Lithuania", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Chabad rabbi, followers ejected from prayer space in Lithuania", JTA, 18 November 2016.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Jew vs. Jew in Lithuania", JTA, 22 September 2004.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Lithuania", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com) centres directory, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Vilnius Jewish Religious Community, "Temporary Closure of Choral Synagogue", Lithuanian Jewish Community (lzb.lt), 13 April 2025.
- ↑ "Chabad of Kaunas (Kovno)", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ "Chabad KSD", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Vilnius shul duel heats up", JTA, 31 May 2007.
- ↑ "Chabad rabbi banned from Lithuania's main synagogue", JTA, 27 February 2017.
- ↑ Paul Berger, "It's Chabad vs. Lithuanian Jews in Fight Over Holocaust Funds", The Forward, 9 February 2017.
- ↑ "Vilnius Chabad Rabbi, Sholom Ber Krinsky, Circulates Appeal on Closing of Synagogue", Defending History, 7 December 2023.